Chapter 158

~~Antoinette~~

Three months later.

She stared down at the corpse, and sighed. Sigh turned to frown. Frown turned into snarl. In her youth, she would have likely elevated to outright rage, and destroyed all in her vicinity. But she had long learned to control her anger, and she quelled it now as she stood, confused and frustrated.

Blood seeped out over the lines of the ritual circle, over the dark tile, and around her feet. She stepped about it effortlessly as she motioned to Daniel.

“It does not come.”

“No,” her sheriff said, “it does not.”

“We did the ritual correctly.”

“If the book is to be believed.”

She snatched the book off the nearby table. Deep in the tower’s basement’s basement, she was free to explore the darkest, most sinister, vile experiments, free of watching eyes or worry of contamination. Down, deep in the earth, surrounded by metal and stone, only she, her sheriff, and her tools existed.

The summoning circle was the same as it was before, though all electricity had been disabled. Only candles would do for this ritual. And the corpse, a woman, a murderer, was not old. The younger the sacrifice, the stronger the resonance.

Antoinette was not happy to kill someone so young, but dealing with Black Blood was too important. Dolareido was built with such options in mind, that it would have an underbelly where black hearts could enact their desires, only for Kindred to capitalize and use such kine for whatever purpose they wished. The city was a utopia for paranormals, not for kine. But she tried. She had found a balance, after all. There was less crime in Dolareido compared to similar cities, and what crime was committed was often untraceable, allowing Kindred to make problematic kine simply disappear without drawing the attention of the media.

But she did not enjoy using such a tool. Several criminals still sat within her cells, and she did not enjoy their presence. And killing them was never a joyful act. Worse was killing a young woman, a troubled girl who had killed her ex boyfriend and his new girlfriend in a fit of rage and madness. A crime of passion, and Antoinette did not enjoy being the judge, jury, and executioner for the woman.

But a body was needed. Black Blood was summoned by death, by decay, by corpses and blood and lifeless mounds of flesh. She could not contact the spirit without it. And yet, even as the girl died in the circle, spared the horror of death as she had been unconscious for it, there was nothing. The dark mist and oozing black blood, it did not appear. Antoinette and Daniel were left standing in candle light, in deathly quiet, with only the spreading blood of the corpse to remind them they were not frozen in time.

With a heavier sigh, Antoinette flipped through the pages of the tome. A terribly old book, she had had to encase each and every page in protective plastic, lest a gentle breeze destroy the parchment. And the cover, a leather of some kind, was encased in the clear plastic as well. Laminating or varnishing had been options, but she worried it would damage the rituals themselves, to permanently alter the book that held them.

A dragon was no dragon if they did not attempt to eliminate unknown factors from their experiments.

Alas, the experiment was for naught.

“Do you want to summon it normally?” Daniel asked.

She shook her head. “I summon it to attempt to bind it. I do not desire another pointless conversation. The damn monster made it perfectly clear last time we spoke, it will not parlay with me. And ... I do not wish to kill another soul this night.”

“Then I’ll call the clean up crew.”

She nodded. They could not let the thralls see the ritual circle, however, thus Daniel and Antoinette took steps to alter and damage the ritual. Once the site was sufficiently ruined, they left, and several thralls stepped past them into the room, armed with an assortment of cleaning tools.

No one was allowed to see the rituals she cast, save for Daniel. Not Natasha, not Elaine, not Samantha, and not her thralls or ghouls. These rituals were beyond dangerous, and only Elaine and Daniel could be trusted to have the mental fortitude to defend themselves from the prying minds of other Kindred. She did not share with Elaine for a different reason. It was best to keep her old friend out of this business with Black Blood and the tears, though as the months went on, that might change.

Daniel and Antoinette stepped into her main experiments room, where the resonance machine could summon spirits by amplifying the resonance of objects. No one sat within, so Antoinette sat with Daniel, and noted down her results, or lack thereof.

“I had meant to ask of Beatrice,” Antoinette said. “How goes her own experiments?”

Daniel sighed, but did not sit with her. He closed the metal door, locking them within the large room of black marble, the hanging chandelier and its blue light, and the nearby ritual circle of mathematical precision that decorated the floor.

“No sign of Julias.”

“Naturally. I am sure she and the flesh witch have finished preparing his body, but to pluck his soul from the afterlife? Every dragon in the world would beg to learn how she managed to accomplish such a feat.”

“And ... a few women kine have gone missing. Some of them young.”

Antoinette sighed as she leaned back, and met her old friend’s gaze.

“What do you think will happen?”

“I think Mary is dead, and Samantha is going to ... learn the hard way, that death is permanent.”

Permanent. So they assumed. Bold words for half-dead bloodsucking monsters of myth.

“Keep an eye and ear open for whatever catastrophe Samantha may unleash,” Antoinette said. “I will let her make these mistakes, but I will not allow them to break the Masquerade, or risk her life. Protect her from whatever creation or mayhem she may cause.”

Daniel nodded.

~~Jack~~

The Carthians stared at him, some of them dropping their jaws. That was fine. A little shock and awe, and fear, would make negotiations go better, hopefully. Julias taught him how to negotiate, and his sire knew the value in using both good cop and bad cop techniques.

So let them think he was the bad cop for a moment.

He held the pub door open long enough for Scully and Mulder to swoop in, and the two birds circled over the heads of the dozen Kindred waiting inside, before they landed on his shoulders. One still had a broken neck, the other a broken wing. It only made the Kindred in the bar more nervous as they looked between Jack and his two friends.

Jack would have scratched and pet both crows normally, but it didn’t fit the image. Right now, he was Jack, childe of Julias Mire, Right Hand of the Invictus, Jack the Cursed, Jack the Ripper, or as he sometimes heard down the grapevine, That Annoying Little Asshole. Whatever, as long as they listened, he didn’t care. And with the hilariously expensive black suit jacket and vest, the red shirt underneath, a black tie with a hint of a flowing pattern of blood red lines, and the two crows on his shoulders, he looked like a mob boss, or the devil’s assistant, or Viktor’s grandchilde. They knew him by that title, too, and it was a valuable negotiation tool.

There weren’t any kine in the bar, except for the ghoul bartender, and a few thralls and ghouls at nearby tables. The thralls and ghouls were particularly terrified of Jack at this point. He hated that. At least with the Kindred the fear was mixed with some predatory instincts. With the kine, they were straight up scared of him. If he grabbed one and threatened them, they’d freeze up. Viktor would probably have loved that.

Jack looked between the bar-goers without a pulse. Steve, Bella, Kass, and Garner were in the bar, Garry’s four ancilla. He had others, but these were the four Garry used when things got physical. They were also the four ancilla Jack had thoroughly thrashed after killing Joe. Cory wasn’t around. Good. He was still pretty young, and Jack didn’t want to look that dude in the eyes, not after ripping a hole in his guts.

It was a typical bar, homely, with pictures of friends on the walls, and not all of them flattering. People knew each other’s names here. He had to give that to the Carthians, they were better at fostering connections.

Lots of wood stools around dingy tables. Always stools, or chairs with short backs. Made it easier for people to socialize with each other, to quickly turn around and engage in new conversations. That was the point of bars, for people to drown in meaningless rapidfire conversation, something Jack doubted he’d ever be able to enjoy.

Jack walked up to the four ancilla. They sat at a table near the center of the room, and Jack grabbed a nearby chair from another table as he approached. He slid in close enough, sat down a foot back from the table, and leaned back as he looked between the four vampires. The whole room had gone deadly silent, everyone staring and watching, and more than a few Kindred put their hands closer to their nearby jackets hanging off chair and booth backs. Knives, guns, all of it hidden, all ready to come out if Jack got aggressive.

“I’m not here to follow up on my promise,” Jack said. “I’m not going to kill anyone. I don’t plan to, ever.”

Bella snarled at him. Tan skin, a bit tall, with curly long black hair. And most importantly, Gangrel.

“You were pretty adamant you were going to kill us.”

“The curse gets vocal. Sorry about that.”

“More than vocal.” Steve leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, and glared at Jack. “Gonna apologize about Joe?”

“No.”

Bella’s stare lit up like he’d thrown gasoline on a fire.

“You killed our friend.”

“Joe came at me and mine with fire. Bruce is dead because of him. And from what I can tell, that attack wasn’t something Garry told you to do, was it?”

The four of them looked between each other, angry, and wearing their thoughts on their sleeves. No, the attack hadn’t been Garry’s order.

“Joe had a good point,” Bella said.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t care how much Joe hated Viktor.”

“You might, if you knew what Viktor had done to him.”

Yeah, maybe he would.

No, he would not pick up pain that belonged to someone else. Enough of that shit. Whatever issue Joe had with Viktor, it wasn’t on Jack’s shoulders.

“No, I wouldn’t. I’m not Viktor. I did everything I could to stop Carthians and Invictus from killing each other. And I’m here for one reason only.” He leaned in closer, and the four ancilla stared at him like he was ready to flip the table and start a brawl. “To tell you I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to make every effort I can to make sure the curse doesn’t kill you. Okay?”

Slowly, the four ancilla sat up straight and traded glances. He knew those glances, the kind that said a hundred things, but outside observers wouldn’t understand any of them.

“And Carter and Sheela?” Bella asked.

“Donny and Carlyle died in that fire, too. Our bosses agreed there’d be no repercussions. We were all idiots.” Some idiots greater than others. Thankfully, that hadn’t included Jack this time. “Be happy I’m not seeking revenge for Bruce. It wasn’t just Joe who killed him. You were all involved, and we were the defenders in that fight. So I say again, I’m making a promise to not deliver on the curse’s threat. But that’s with the stipulation you pull your heads out of your arrogant asses and accept how much you fucked up that night. Do we understand each other?”

He glared at each ancilla, and Mulder and Scully both crowed once, announcing Jack controlled the conversation. He did control it. It was for everyone’s benefit, because if it wasn’t for him forcing these idiots to see reason, there was a good chance they’d stir up trouble in the future. If he had to force peace down their throats, he would.

It was times like these he realized how easy it’d be to become a dictator. It was so damn simple to assume he was right, everyone else was wrong, and if he could just force everyone to do what he wanted, everyone would be happier. A nice, lovely, cobblestone road of good intentions, with a big flaming gate at the end of it.

It took a moment for the ancilla to nod, after a fair bit of staring and more than a few sparks of anger, and fear.

“We understand,” Bella said.

“Good.” Jack stood up, adjusted his tie, and looked to the rest of the crowd. Everyone was watching, and more than a few of them still had mouths parted, like they’d expected shit to go a lot worse than it did. It could have. Even with a few months for everyone to calm down, tempers were still high between the two covenants.

But the Carthians responded well to direct, open dialog. So did Jack.

He stepped out into the night, and both his friends took to the sky before any nearby kine noticed the strange, small guy in the expensive suit with two birds on his shoulders. Ok, work done. Time to move onto good times. He had a couple people who were aching for a celebration.

He smiled at the three girls in the limousine with him. He sat beside Veronica, while Leilani and Rachel sat on the other side, looking at them, shy smiles on.

Jack had changed his suit. The black suit and tie with the crimson shirt were intimidating, and that wasn’t his goal tonight. All three ladies wore dresses, dark as well, not crazy revealing like you’d find in Bloodlust or other nightclubs, but pretty nonetheless. They also had bags with them, with swimsuits inside. Because apparently, that’s what the girls wanted for a celebration for Lei and Rachel becoming fully enthralled in the Vinculum: a trip to the Elysium Tower. Elaine had suggested the pool, because of course she did.

Veronica pressed into his side, and nudged her shoulder into him a little harder than necessary. She smiled up at him, before looking at his two new thralls, and they smiled brighter. All three of them were under the same contract: serve faithfully, grow more intelligent and skilled in combat, allow Jack to drink of them freely, and they’d be elevated to ghouls, and eventually Kindred. Sex was not in that contract. Swimsuits were not in the contract either. But it was damn obvious all three were eager to show off their bodies, and do everything they could to have sex with him. He’d made it damn clear it would not affect how quickly he’d consider siring them, but that didn’t seem to matter. The Vinculum was a powerful, binding force.

Ok, maybe it was a harem.

Veronica Tam was a short woman, with blue hair to her shoulders, and blue eyes. Pale, and with large breasts.

Rachel was a couple inches taller than Jack, with a pixie cut of blonde hair, green eyes, and a thin but soft build. And even larger breasts.

Leilani was about Jack’s height, tan skin on a lean, athletic body, with long wavy black hair, dark eyes, with a narrow and mischievous smile. Smaller breasts than her two fellow thralls, but still quite large, considering how lean she was. She almost looked like a bustier Clara, which was a pretty weird thought, considering Antoinette had picked the girls.

Jack had made it abundantly clear to Antoinette that he didn’t want to pick thralls based on cup size. Yeah, he liked boobs, but picking who would be his servants for years, maybe decades, based on the size of their breasts? Pretty damn shallow.

She’d made a lot of good counter-points. They were kine, he was Kindred, and he was allowed to be picky. There were plenty of potential thralls in the city, and while he liked boobs, plenty of Kindred were perfectly happy to bind kine that didn’t have huge breasts; some even preferred small. Those Kindred could have those thralls. And for the final point, that he was building a harem, and that meant sex. Lots and lots of sex. Why not go with the things he liked?

Of course he countered with how attractive he found Julee and Ashley, and despite trying his hardest to not, Natasha too. But Antoinette found him a couple more busty kine to enthrall anyway. And honestly, now that people were visiting his mansion more, maybe having more than one helper was a good idea.

And as Veronica snuggled into his side, and Leilani and Rachel watched her with envy, he couldn’t help but feel his ego grow. Yeap, he wanted a harem. He, evidently, wanted a trio of gorgeous girls to tend to his every whim while he and his lover lay back and enjoyed themselves. Hell, more than a trio. Ten girls fawning over him, doing anything and everything they could for a chance to touch him? Yeap, his brain had gone off to fantasy land, and was now thoroughly brainwashed and drowning in the Ventrue side of him.

He almost offered Lei and Rachel another ‘you can go home if you want’ ticket. He had already. But it was clear they wanted to come, and it only made them sad when he even suggested they didn’t need to be with him. And it had them smiling and blushing when he even so much as suggested an order. If he gave them a proper order, they’d obey, happy to oblige and hoping for a reward when they did.

No wonder Kindred got full of themselves as they got older. Thralls and ghouls were like injecting pure narcissism and hedonism straight into the ego.

They stepped out of the limousine outside the Elysium Tower gardens, and both Lei and Rachel gasped as they looked the building up and down.

“This is where the Prince lives?” Rachel asked.

“I told you which building it was.” Jack shrugged and motioned for them to follow. They did, side by side, each practically glowing with excitement, and fear. Veronica was a little afraid, and she always would be; Antoinette had that effect. The others had met Elaine and Antoinette, several times, but not as intimately as Elaine’s first meeting with Veronica. They were damn scared of Elaine, and utterly terrified of Antoinette, the Prince, their master’s lover.

Hopefully tonight would alleviate that a bit.

He took his time walking up to the building, letting the girls look at the garden maze. Jack took a moment to peek, too. Christ, four years ago he went into that maze with Antoinette, sat down on a bench with her, tried to Dominate her at her request, to test his power. Then Tony showed up, and Jack walked right past him, probably nearly getting himself killed in the process. Tony really hated his ex, and probably started plotting Jack’s death at that very moment. Half to scorn his ex, half because Jack didn’t act like the scaredy cat an elder expected a fledgling to.

Four years. Might as well have been a fucking lifetime.

“Oh my god,” Rachel said as they stepped into the building. “This place is huge! And pretty!”

Jack grinned at her as he looked at the walls of the huge lobby. Black marble with white veins of lightning. Columns stood around made of the same material, with dragons carved into them, coiling the pillars.

The stairway down had them gawking as well. It wasn’t exactly common, a stairway that opened up into a larger stairway that went deep underground, but there it was. The stairway he’d been standing on, when he controlled Damien, and used him to kill Lucas. Jack took them deeper and deeper, and as they passed rooms, the girls took peeks. He didn’t stop them. There weren’t any important rooms connected to the main staircase, but there was plenty to see. Giant rooms filled with everything from computers, enormous TV screens, and giant speakers, to art rooms filled with paintings and sculptures.

Ashley and Julee waited at the bottom of the stairs, and they waved excitedly.

“Hi!” Ashley said.

“Hello.” Julee said.

Lei opened her mouth, but Ashley jumped in close.

“Oh my god you’re pretty! Jack is lucky.” Ashley reached out, grabbed Rachel’s hand, and immediately pulled her off toward one of the changing rooms. “Come on, let’s go get changed! The mistress and her friend are already swimming.”

Jack’s thralls looked to him, a little shocked by Ashley’s outgoing attitude. But he laughed, shrugged, and motioned for them to go with her. They did, and he caught their excited smiles returning.

Jack rolled his eyes, and went to one of Antoinette’s changing rooms to get into his swimming trunks. Why Antoinette picked Ashley and Julee to be her ghouls, he’d never quite understand. They were smart, but they weren’t exactly wise. Antoinette couldn’t talk to them about philosophy or politics. She couldn’t talk to them about the existential crisis of being a vampire, or human for that matter. She couldn’t talk to them about much, really. But she loved talking to them, cause they enjoyed life in a way she — and Jack — struggled to.

Antoinette and Julias would have had a lot to talk about. They both looked for the same thing in other people.

He walked into the pool room, tugged at his necklace idly, and smiled as he spotted Antoinette and Elaine. They were in the pool, swimming, which was an interesting problem for Kindred. Without the Blush of Life, vampires had a habit of sinking. But both elders were already Blushing Life, and floating along easily enough. A wasteful indulgence for most Kindred, spending blood on the Blush like that, but they were beyond secure in their ability to get more blood.

That was one of the joys of Dolareido. Even young Kindred had an easy time hunting.

Jack grinned down at the two women as he came closer, walking past a dozen pool chairs over the white tile of the enormous room, before coming to the edge of the enormous pool. Not Olympic size, but close. There was a hot tub further in the back, and that thing was huge too, but it was empty, the only people around for the moment just Jack and the two most powerful women in the city. Probably the two most powerful women in the state.

“My love.” Antoinette smiled up at him and swam toward him. “I trust your thralls are changing?” She set her hands on the pool edge, but stayed in the water, its surface at her chin.

Black bikini. Black string, tiny bikini. Wet hair. So simple. So god damn hot. Plus the fact her boobs refused to sink, and floated up against her chest until they bobbed just under the surface of the water.

“Yeah. They’ll be here in a minute.”

Elaine swam up beside Antoinette, and put her hands on the pool edge too. Similar bikini, but red. With a decidedly more evil grin than Antoinette’s, she reached out and ran a finger down his shin.

“You will let me touch them this time, yes? You have had these two new thralls for a month now, and I have yet to taste.”

“I might.” He rolled his eyes, and sat down on the pool edge, both women parting so he could sit between them, his legs hanging at the knee in the warm water. “They’re both anxious to get physical.”

“Of course they are,” Antoinette said, and she hooked both her hands over his right knee, elbows hanging off, and set her chin on her hands, weight on his knee. “My love is a gorgeous and wonderful man. What woman would not wish to sleep with him? Especially after having, no doubt, heard stories of his sexual prowess from their fellow thrall Veronica.”

“Undoubtedly.” Elaine mirrored Antoinette, hooking her hands over his other knee so she could rest her chin on them, elbows hanging off either side of the other leg. “I presume you told them they are allowed to sleep with each other?”

“Yeah. I don’t think they have yet, but after tonight, I’m guessing they will.” Leilani and Rachel both knew the pleasure of the Kiss now, but not the Kiss when combined with sex. Ashley and Julee were on each other every single night, according to Antoinette. Veronica, Lei, and Rachel probably would be, too. “Any news about Garry?”

“Non, mon amie, nothing new.”

Jack nodded, before grinning down at Elaine. “Managed to fuck him yet?”

“I will have you know, I respect the man’s sexuality. He is entirely homosexual, and there is little I can do to change that.”

Surprising to hear that. Elaine kinda gave off ‘I can make anyone want to fuck me’ vibes.

“And Avery’s pack? Sleep with anymore of them?”

Elaine wiggled her eyebrows. Subtly, sexily, but a double eyebrow wiggle was funny, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I have, in fact. Mason and his Kindred girlfriend made delightful bedfellows.”

“Uh huh. He transform?”

His great grandsire shivered and half closed her eyes. “Oh yes. You cannot imagine how overwhelming it feels to be filled by something so huge.”

“Sounds painful.”

“At first, but the body adapts. You feel ready to burst, but then things swell, engorge, and the friction and pressure become orgasmic.”

“Uh huh. You know I have a perfectly average-sized penis, right?”

Elaine shrugged, chin still on her hands, still on his knee. “If large penetration was all I sought from sex, I would stay at home with some large toys.”

“Some girls do.”

“We are not those girls.” Antoinette laughed, reached out, and plucked at his trunks with a finger. “And how did your meeting with Michael fair?”

“The boss still leaves me alone, for the most part. I’ve been doing a lot of negotiating with Terra Den, and that isn’t exactly fun. Apparently I really pissed Jeremy Long off, when I threatened him about the incendiaries he was making. Guess he didn’t like my Ventrue attitude.” He had to be careful how he worded these replies. They hadn’t included Elaine in their search for answers about the tears and Black Blood. She probably knew about it, considering who she was. And considering who she was, she’d probably concocted her own plans to take advantage of the situation somehow.

“Should I get involved?” Antoinette asked. “None of the corporations I control interact with Terra Den, but that does not mean they could not.”

“It’s fine. I can handle it. What about Garry and Michael at the Primogen meetings?”

“Dogs, barking at each other. But that is how it has always been. I am happy they are talking, even if it is little more than angry noise.”

“Gangrels.” Elaine sighed and rolled her eyes. “Mongrels.”

Antoinette smiled at her friend. “Spoken like a Ventrue.”

“Gangrels are good for little else than being at the forefront of a battle.” Elaine shrugged before she set her hands on the pool edge beside Jack, and pushed herself up. Considering how little a string bikini covered, her breasts rippled against her chest quite a bit, and Jack watched. No point in trying to hide how much he loved that anymore. Elaine chuckled and sat beside him.

“That is hardly fair,” Antoinette said, and she pulled herself up on Jack’s other side. Same thing. She made sure to push her breasts together with her arms, showing off just how absurd they were as they jiggled, before she sat beside him, too. “I have known many Gangrel to be valuable. Two of them are my Primogen, after all.”

Elaine laughed. “They started a war.”

“That is hardly the fault of their blood lineage. Ventrue, Daeva, and Nosferatu are as equally likely to start wars, non?” Shrugging, Antoinette snuggled into Jack’s side, and turned to face him. She leaned down, he tilted his head back, and she half closed her eyes as she brought her lips to his. “Blush for me.”

He did. She sighed happily, and nudged her face into his, burying him in the kiss. He had to put both his hands back against the wet floor to keep from falling over.

A hand slipped its way under his trunks, and teased soft fingertips along his still soft member. He had to do some mental gymnastics to realize Antoinette’s left hand was beside him, and her right hand was on his chest. Which meant Elaine was touching him.

No point in resisting, or being shy about any of this anymore, not after the stuff they’d done. He melted into Antoinette’s kiss, and with her enormous bust squished against his arm and chest, along with Elaine’s expert touch around his cock, he could already feel his fake blood begin to fake pulse.

“We’re not gonna wait?” he asked.

Antoinette sighed, but sat back up straight, and gave Elaine a soft slap on the wrist. She sighed, mimicking Antoinette perfectly, and sat up straight as well.

~~♥♥♥~~

They didn’t have to wait long. Giggles announced Ashley’s arrival, and the three vampires looked back to watch the five kine approach. Ashley wore a yellow bikini with blue dots. Julee wore blue, no dots. Both were very skimpy, almost as skimpy as their mistress’s.

And then there were Jack’s thralls. Apparently they’d decided to coordinate colors, cause they all wore white. Hell, more than just color, they all wore the same swimsuit. Bikinis, exact same brand. High hip bikinis, unlike Ashley or Julee’s, and just as skimpy as Elaine and Antoinette’s. Which meant every step they took included a fair amount of jiggle.

Much as Jack was instantly hypnotized by the sight of thralls, his thralls, strutting toward him with full intent on showing off with every step, it was their necks his eyes locked onto. All three of them wore chokers, white chokers that matched their bikinis. As thin as their tiny bikini strings.

Jack looked at Antoinette, and frowned at her. “Your idea?”

“Of course. They are your sex slaves, after all.”

“They’re not my...” He groaned and rolled his eyes, but he could feel his smile breaking through.